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Past the edge of the universe, through the singularity, and out the other side.

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09-01-10 @ 04:23 PM

Lean

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Re: Atheists/Agnostics/Other: Does man have a soul

Originally Posted by ads1981

As C. S. Lewis once said "You don't have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body."

I don't know where souls fit in the greater scheme of world religions, but I know they figure quite prominently in Christianity. That led me to wonder; do people who don't believe in a deity still believe that man has a soul, it's what separates him from the animals, etc?

I hope to see some incredibly wordy responses. I want to learn.

P.S.: I'll be gone for the next 24-30 hours in honor of the 4th so will not be able to respond until my return.

Anybody else out there with me, travel safe!

As an atheist and a humanist I believe in the human spirit but it's not supernatural or anything.

Re: Atheists/Agnostics/Other: Does man have a soul

Originally Posted by Orion

Or simply undiscovered.

Science is not the determiner of all things. Sorry to say.

Science can only answer that which is in the realm of science. There will be quite a bit that science will not or cannot at this point comment on. Yet, seeing is believing. And I have seen nothing which would necessitate the existence of a soul.

You know the time is right to take control, we gotta take offense against the status quo

Originally Posted by A. de Tocqueville

"I should have loved freedom, I believe, at all times, but in the time in which we live I am ready to worship it."

Past the edge of the universe, through the singularity, and out the other side.

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09-01-10 @ 04:23 PM

Lean

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Re: Atheists/Agnostics/Other: Does man have a soul

Originally Posted by Orion

Or simply undiscovered.

Science is not the determiner of all things. Sorry to say.

And this is devoid of all logic and reason whatsoever. There is as much evidence for an invisible dragon who breathes heatless fire living in my garage as there is evidence for your soul. I suggest you read Calr Sagan's "Demon Haunted World".

Oh and fyi Science is the determinant of all things within the natural world, thus anything that falls outside of the realm of science would by default have to be labeled supernatural.

Re: Atheists/Agnostics/Other: Does man have a soul

Originally Posted by Agent Ferris

And this is devoid of all logic and reason whatsoever. There is as much evidence for an invisible dragon who breathes heatless fire living in my garage as there is evidence for your soul. I suggest you read Calr Sagan's "Demon Haunted World".

Oh and fyi Science is the determinant of all things within the natural world, thus anything that falls outside of the realm of science would by default have to be labeled supernatural.

Such arrogance.

There are thousands of plants in the rainforest that possess medicine which are yet undiscovered, yet local natives know of them and how to use them. Because science hasn't discovered those plants, would you call them supernatural?

It is the height of hubris to think that one form of understanding the world can know everything, and if it doesn't know, then no other knowledge is real.

Do you see all of the world's civilizations throughout all time talking about an invisible dragon living in your garage? No. But people have talked about the soul and its nature virtually forever.

So take your specious remarks about logic and reason and shove it. Your primitive science that has only been around for a few hundred measely years knows only a fraction of what this existence means. That's why people don't turn to science to answer existential questions. Those answers reside within us, not outside of us to be searched for and discovered in a lab.

Science deals with physical nature. It knows nothing about the world of spirit.

Re: Atheists/Agnostics/Other: Does man have a soul

There seems to be this popular thought that the existence of a soul is unsupported by the data. I believe this thought to be in error.

I remember where I was on September 11, 2001. This was more than seven years ago. This means that I have not one molecule shared between my current body and the one I had then. My hardware has been completely replaced. In order for "me" to exist beyond the expiration of my hardware, suggests the existence of software.

That which I identify as "me" is clearly not limited to a particular set of particles, but rather to a pattern of thought which can run on this new brain just as well as it did on the old one.

Now y'all can make up a new term for this intangible sense of self which can be empirically demonstrated to transcend the material, but the word "soul" already aptly describes such a phenomenon regardless of whether you may dislike its spiritual connotation or not.